Sunday, 23 May 2010

15. Ronnie Blair

Position : Defender

Played : 1969-70 to 1971-2, 1982-3

Appearances : (first spell) 70 (second spell) 3

Goals : (first spell) 3 (second spell) 0

Ronnie came to us at 33 on a free from Blackpool having been made one of the scapegoats for their relegation to the Fourth Division. He had played for us in our Third Division days before returning to first club Oldham where he remained for the rest of the 70s making nearly three hundred League appearances and winning 5 caps for Northern Ireland.

A versatile defender who could also play in midfield, Peter Madden deployed Ronnie in a 5-man defence to counteract the loss of Brian Taylor but after three games and facing the long trip to Colchester, Ronnie decided he no longer wanted to play regular football. He said he would come back if we were desperate. Yeah, thanks for that mate.

A director of a printing firm Ronnie went on to make a few appearances for local side Milton and later managed Castleton Gabriels and Bacup Borough.